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1 in 30 million
What a lucky catch!
Isn't yellow the rarest of all? I forget.
That's the number that gets
That's the number that gets cited, but one was taken from Rhode Island waters a month ago. Since we know the number 2 is correct, I'd question the estimate of 1 in 30 million.
And yes, blue is more common than yellow.
Why?
Why would you think that 2 yellow lobsters in a month upsets the ratio of 1 in 30 million?
Two instances in a month don't allow you to calculate anything. When was the time before that? And before that? Maybe 5 or 6 time periods between catches would give you a decent average. Then you'd have to look at how many lobsters there are. I can only readily find numbers for how much we pull up (we don't pull them all up every year). In Maine alone, they pull up over 90 million pounds last year. If we even assume that each lobster was 2 lbs, then that's 45 million lobsters in a year. If Maine only saw 1 yellow lobster the whole year last year, that's about 1 in 45 million...that was fished up, let alone among the population as a whole (fished and not-fished).
Plus
They've probably got genetic testing on them. Pretty sure you can deduct genetic traits %'s through that.
Genetics?
So, this was a pregnant female, who got tossed back. Will she produce more yellow lobsters, making this a good trait to carry? Will that 1 in 30 million number be thrown off now?
Serious flash-back to my junior high school biology classes going on here. :) At least lobsters are more interesting than peas!
You'd think that it would be
You'd think that it would be genetic. There's a web page that claims that the blue color comes from the diet, but if that were true, you'd have a lot more blue lobsters locally where they were relying on particular foods. Blue plus yellow pigments would give you the standard green color, so a genetic basis makes sense.
Albino ones, too
People love throwing that number around, don't they? It's become legendary.
Maybe
But genes don't always work that way. Some traits are recessive, needing both parents to carry the gene.
Blue eyes are a good example. Unless both parents have a copy of the gene, there's no chance of inheriting blue eyes.
Also
Some genetic traits are caused by spontaneous mutations (Down syndrome) and others can be caused by either spontaneous mutation or inheritance (achondroplasia, curly hair).
Complicating things all the more ...
Genes don't necessarily work in solitary - some need to be activated to work, others require other genes to function to work.
One example: there are women who have XY chromosomes but are allowed to compete in the Olympics. Sure, their bodies produce a lot of testosterone, but it just gets metabolized to estradiol which feminizes their bodies. How? Testostrone requires receptors to work, and they have a mutation in a testosterone receptor that renders testosterone ineffective.